Two Writers & The River – A Conversation with Jerry Dennis & Michael Delp

[Update July 1, 2016: We have uploaded a 30-minute version of this conversation. Access is available below.]

Avid outdoors men, Jerry Dennis and Michael Delp have spent much of their adult lives thinking, researching and writing about Northern Michigan’s lakes, rivers and streams. Both men have worked hard to educate others about the value and significance of these incredible resources.

Jerry Dennis and Michael Delp

This short video offers excerpts from a longer discussion between these two incredible writers and Nature Change. Through conversation and short readings of their works, Jerry and Michael remind us of the emotional and cultural connections we have have in northwest lower Michigan to the waters around us.

Jerry Dennis reads a short segment of the prologue to his book, The Windward Shore published by the University of Michigan Press. Michael Delp reads the poem, The Mad Angler’s Restitution from his new book, Lying in the River’s Dark Bed: The Confluence of the Deadman and the Mad Angler published by Wayne State Press.

Please send Nature Change a message if you would like us to publish a longer version of this conversation. We would love to hear from you.

Update: Below, we are providing access to a longer version of this discussion between writers, Jerry Dennis and Michael Delp. This one-camera video is about 30 minutes in length (cuts only editing). We hope you enjoy it!

This is a great video, a conversation between two accomplished writers and serious anglers who know the value of Michigan’s most precious resource. We can be grateful for their words and for their work on behalf of our streams, rivers and lakes.

Ferris Glass was four years old in 1924 when his family moved into the house on the bank next to the Brown Bridge dam. The earthen dam had just been built to provide electric power for Traverse City, its backwaters forming Brown Bridge pond. His father was employed by the City of Traverse City to operate the dam, a job that was not without risk: Just ten years before, a dam operator in Mayfield had drowned when the earthen dam had washed out after a heavy rain. http://gtjournal.tadl.org/2016/damsfail/